Farina briefly explained.  Gottlieb spread out his arms, and was going to thank the youth.  He saw Father Gregory, and his whole frame narrowed with disgust.

‘Are you in company with that pestilent animal, that curse of Cologne!’

‘The good Monk—­,’ said Farina.

’You are leagued with him, then, sirrah!  Expect no thanks from me.  Cologne, I say, is cursed!  Meddling wretches! could ye not leave Satan alone?  He hurt us not.  We were free of him.  Cologne, I say, is cursed!  The enemy of mankind is brought by you to be the deadly foe of Cologne.’

So saying, Gottlieb departed.

‘Seest thou, my son,’ quoth the Monk, ‘they reason not!’

Farina was dejected.  Willingly would he, for his part, have left the soul of Evil a loose rover for the sake of some brighter horizon to his hope.

No twinge of remorse accompanied Gottlieb.  The Kaiser had allotted him an encampment and a guard of honour for his household while the foulness raged, and there Gottlieb welcomed back Margarita and Aunt Lisbeth on the noon after his meeting with Farina.  The White Rose had rested at Laach, and was blooming again.  She and the Goshawk came trotting in advance of the Club through the woods of Laach, startling the deer with laughter, and sending the hare with her ears laid back all across country.  In vain Dietrich menaced Guy with the terrors of the Club:  Aunt Lisbeth begged of Margarita not to leave her with the footmen in vain.  The joyous couple galloped over the country, and sprang the ditches, and leapt the dykes, up and down the banks, glad as morning hawks, entering Andernach at a round pace; where they rested at a hostel as capable of producing good Rhine and Mosel wine then as now.  Here they had mid-day’s meal laid out in the garden for the angry Club, and somewhat appeased them on their arrival with bumpers of the best Scharzhofberger.  After a refreshing halt, three boats were hired.  On their passage to the river, they encountered a procession of monks headed by the Archbishop of Andernach, bearing a small figure of Christ carved in blackthorn and varnished:  said to work miracles, and a present to the good town from two Hungarian pilgrims.

‘Are ye for Cologne?’ the monks inquired of them.

‘Direct down stream!’ they answered.

’Send, then, hither to us Gregory, the conqueror of Darkness, that he may know there is gratitude on earth and gratulation for great deeds,’ said the monks.

So with genuflexions the travellers proceeded, and entered the boats by the Archbishop’s White Tower.  Hammerstein Castle and Rheineck they floated under; Salzig and the Ahr confluence; Rolandseck and Nonnenwerth; Drachenfels and Bonn; hills green with young vines; dells waving fresh foliage.  Margarita sang as they floated.  Ancient ballads she sang that made the Goshawk sigh for home, and affected the Club with delirious love for the grand